The Eagles Might've Really Bungled This Sam Bradford Thing

Exciting times under center in Philadelphia! Sam Bradford, the starting quarterback for exactly as long as it takes the Eagles to decide that their No. 2 overall draft pick is ready to step in, is perhaps not entirely satisfied being a stopgap. One report says he wants out.

That report comes from ESPN’s Adam Schefter, who says that Bradford has demanded a trade and will stop showing up to OTAs after the Eagles moved up in the draft to grab a quarterback, likely Carson Wentz.

This comes about 12 hours after a Charles Robinson Yahoo story that reported the exact opposite: that Bradford was upset by the trade, but will not seek to force his way out of Philadelphia. Robinson was caught off-guard by today’s reversal:

It’s hard to know what to think, only that one or both sides—Bradford’s agent and/or the Eagles’ front office—are using Robinson and Schefter for their own agendas. That’s how these things work. But if there’s any truth to the story that Bradford is willing to sit out: C’mon, Sam. Bro. You have no leverage. You’re not great, and you’re hurt a lot, and the Eagles are inexplicably paying you a lot of money. No one else wants you with that contract, and the Eagles won’t give you up for nothing after already paying out your signing bonus. They will easily sit you and not pay you. Sam, c’mon.

Howie Roseman, who now makes the Eagles’ personnel decisions and has done his damndest to erase Chip Kelly’s fingerprints from the roster, is being politic about the matter:

Even if Bradford is not the Eagles’ quarterback of the future, he’s actually a huge part of their plans, and his presence is very important to them. NFL teams are starting to realize that it’s not ideal tossing rookie quarterbacks into the fire immediately, and in an ideal world they’d be able to sit on the bench for a couple of years and just learn behind a veteran starter. That’s usually not a real possibility, but with the Eagles not being terrible, and having committed so much to Bradford and to Chase Daniel as a backup, they seemed to have a situation in place where Wentz would not have to sniff the field for a long while, not even due to injury. It was a smart enough plan on paper. In practice, it may not have accounted for hurt feelings.